The star we hung on the tree is glittery gold and I got to hang it. I had to stand on a tall wooden stool to reach the top of the green Christmas tree that reaches to the ceiling. There are candy canes in all colors hanging on the branches of the tree. After presents are opened, I get to eat them, but not yet. There's a red brick chimney at the top of our house. I bet Santa would need a ladder to reach our chimney it's so tall.

On Christmas Eve, right before bed when I'm so excited I might explode, we leave a few cookies on a plate next to a glass of milk. The cookies are oatmeal with no raisins — my favorite. I think Santa likes them too. All he ever leaves are the crumbs.

I have been sleeping in bed when I hear footsteps upstairs. I think I may be dreaming. Then I hear the wrinkly sounds of wrapping paper moving around. I should probably stay in bed, but I wonder what the sound is and I want to go see. I climb out of bed. It is pitch black. I think it must be twelve at night, but I don't see a clock. I try to keep quiet so I don't wake my dad or my cousin, and I head for the stairs.

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Allison Howland, Durham, Moharimet Elementary School, Grade 3

As I come into the living room I see someone as big as Santa with a red and white Santa suit on, putting presents down under the tree. I know it must be Santa. He turns and looks at me with a surprised face. I say “Hi, San ...” POOF! He disappeared in a cloud of dust. I think, “Wait! No, I wasn't finished!” I wanted to talk to him and see if I was on the bad list or not and see which of the boxes and bags was for me ... but not what was in them. But Santa was gone.

“Bye”, I whispered at the dust that fell to the ground. I looked at the presents. I really wanted to open them all but I knew I had to wait. So I took one down to my room and hid it under my bed to open first thing in the morning. Every year when I think of Christmas, I think of the time I saw Santa and remember how special it was.

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Lily Dube, Dover, Grade 4

Christmas Eve Night

By Anna Sargent

Grade 4, Mast Way School

My favorite family tradition is going to my grandparents' house on Christmas Eve. (My favorite thing to do there is spend time with my family. My family does this every year.

I like going to meet my amazing family on Christmas Eve at my grandparents' house. I like playing with my cousins. My funny little brother likes dirt bikes. My awesome sister is 17 and works at Quiznoz. Quiznoz is a sandwich shop. It's like subway My dad works at Globaltek. Globaltek is a company that fixes electronic stuff like computers and cable boxes. My amazing mom is a massage therapist. My aunt works a hospital. My grandfather works at a firework store. My family is awesome.

We spend lots of time in the living room. My grandparents have big comfy chairs and a big couch in the living room. After we open our gifts that were under the big decorative tree with the beautiful angel and gold lights with black, red, green and blue ornaments, the adults in the family have a Yankee swap. One year my grandfather and my mom both bought hard-boiled egg cookers and they ended up with each other's [Now when we cook our hard boiled eggs we hear “buk buk- buk buk” because it's a chicken.].

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Ryan Tobin, Portsmouth, Saint Patrick School, Grade 4

You always have a good reason to be in the kitchen. My grandmother always makes a delicious dinner. There is always lots of dessert. Dessert always tastes scrumptious. My grandmother packed everyone in the kitchen for a special reason. Me and my sister were going to sing Christmas carols. Some carols we sang were Jingle Bells, Rudolf and Frosty the Snowman. Before we leave my dad packs all the gifts in the car. Well, we say “good bye” and “thank you” to everyone. Then we exit through the white kitchen door leading to the porch. The porch has a carpet rolled out along the floor and a couch. The porch also has a fire stove. Then we exit through the next white door and we are on our way home,

When we get home we get ready for one of my favorite holidays. We put out carrots for Santa's reindeer. And we put out cookies and milk for Santa. Then I go to be put pj's on and try to fall asleep, but I just can't. What the holidays means to me is spending time with my family. I always feel excited when it's the holidays because I get to see my family.

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Abigail Thornton, Newmarket, Newmarket Elementary School, Grade 3

The Christmas That Almost Wasn't

By Jordan Collins

Grade 4, Knowlton School

It was a snowy day in the North Pole. Today was December 16, Santa and the elves were getting ready for Christmas. Santa and the elves were very busy. The Teddy bear elf (Named Cuddles) was making all sorts of bears, the candy elf (Named Sugar) was making lollipops and gingerbread houses for the children. Everyone was happy until one day .....

The elves were getting ready and poor baby toy elf (Named Skippy) was still working hard, everyone was exhausted and wanted to go home. “Why do you like making these silly baby toys every day?” Sugar asked. Skippy replied, “Well, if it's so silly then why don't you try it, I Quit!” Skippy ran to his house very depressed and reflected on what he had just said.

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Meghan Fitzgerald, Dover, Garrison Elementary School, Grade 3

Over at Santa's workshop the elves told Santa about Skippy. “Oh no, how will the babies get their toys for Christmas”? Santa said. “Don't worry Santa we don't need Skippy to make the baby toys, we'll make them, you will have them by next week,” said Cuddles. “OK I trust you guys,” Santa said as he left the room.

Cuddles and the crew were walking over to the first baby toy machine. “So it says we have to add vinegar and baking soda.” Cuddles said. “The outcome should produce a baby rattle.” They began to put vinegar and baking soda to the machine, but what they didn't know was that the vinegar and baking soda instructions were for the rocket launcher.

All the elves left the baby rattle machine so they could start to work on other toys. Suddenly, they all heard a big “BOOM!” All the elves ran toward the baby rattle machine. The hose to the bottom began soaking the elves with vinegar and baking soda. “AHHH”, Sugar screamed. “Opps, Cuddles replied, I read the wrong instructions.' The elves glared at him.

The elves began to make a new baby item, the baby binkies. “It says that this machine will make binkies.” Cuddles told the elves. “Let me read the instructions this time.” Sugar said. It says to put in salt and water.” Sugar replied to the elves. The elves mistakenly read the instructions wrong and thought they said to add salt and water, but of course it was incorrect and should have been powder and rubber. “OK, this should be right.” Sugar said. They just stood there watching the machine until “BOOM!” the machine blows up with pieces flying everywhere!

“Oh no! I read the instructions wrong it was supposed to be powder and rubber.” Sugar was upset, he thought to himself, it's almost Christmas Eve and none of the baby toys are ready.

Back at Skippy's house Santa decided to go talk to Skippy. Santa knocked on the door. “Skippy, are you home, it's Santa.” The door opened. “Hey Skippy! I'm really sorry the elves weren't nice to you, we really need you back. I walked into the room last night and boy was I surprised, it was a mess! Skippy you're the only one who can save Christmas, please come back.” Santa pleaded. “Yes! Skippy replied. Let's go!”

Skippy and Santa skipped into the toy room. “Skippy!” All the elves yelled in unison. Skippy was happy to see all his elf friends, but wasn't happy to see the mess. “It's a Christmas miracle!” The youngest elf cried.

By the time Christmas came around the corner, everyone got their presents and this Christmas was truly one of the best, it was a Happily Christmas Ever After!

Santa's Secret

By Emma Badger

Grade 3, Hanson School

Christmas just wouldn't happen if it wasn't for Mrs. Claus. On the day before Christmas Mrs. Claus always feeds the reindeer. And how do you think Rudolph's nose shines so bright? Because she uses the shining ice that you can only find at the North Pole that also makes toys. Mrs. Claus always takes good care of the reindeer. This is really helpful to Santa so the reindeer have energy to fly all around the world.

When Mrs. Claus was watching the elves making toys she gave them a special type of drink that gives them a lot of energy. The drink is made out of love, melted North Pole snow and glittery shaved icicles. The elves get excited when they see their drink coming.

Some important things that Mrs. Claus does for Santa is that she washes Santa's coat to make it bright red, and scrubs his tall, black boots with silver magic ice to make them shine like the sun. She feeds him special chocolate chip sugar cookies with whip cream and a cherry on the top with creamy, cold milk. But the most important gift she brings is the power of love. Without it, Christmas just wouldn't happen!

Holiday Traditions

By Robbie Follis

Grade 4, Mast Way School

Holiday traditions are very important to me and my family. When we do our traditions we do them all throughout the whole month of December. My family always does this stuff because we all love the joy and excitement. I love all the traditions and that's why I'm going to tell you about them;

I started to make gingerbread houses when I was 4. That was 5 years ago. The first gingerbread house wasn't perfect but it was still fun. It took about two hours to bake it and put on all of the sugary frosting and gumdrops. It was very small but still hard to make. When we started to make the house it had candy bar shutters on one of them. We had really good ideas when we started to make the house. When it was done it had candy cane and icing snow. I can never wait until Christmas night after dinner to eat the delicious house. The only thing I don't like about that gingery goodness is having to wait so long to eat it. The tasty gumdrops and minty red and white candy canes and the brown gingerbread are all so tasty. I want to keep the tradition going for my whole life.

Another tradition is getting the Christmas tree. First we get all of the wire and the rope and get in the car and go to the farm. Once we find the perfect green, tall tree we take the chain saw that we brought and cut the tree down. Then we get it on a long gray cart. It's hard to move but still a good workout. It's really hard to get the tree down and pull the cart but I love the hard, paying-off work. Once we get home one of the hardest parts is getting the green tree through the door. Once it is through the door we have to get the Christmas tree stand and put the big green Christmas tree up. It smells all like pine needles when we get the tree through the door. When we get home my mom is waiting to help us put the big green pine tree up on the Christmas tree stand.

When we put on the ornaments the tree looks like a big green thing of beauty. When we make the white thin paper snowflakes they look beautiful. Sometimes we will take pictures and put them into our favorite ornaments and put them up on the green tree. We have a special ornament. It's a white angel. It wears white shoes with a big white and gray and a bit of black dress. My personal favorite ornament is the candy cane. They're delicious and the piece of white and red candy also goes great on a perfect green pine tree. The most important part of a Christmas tree is the lights. The way they shimmer is a great sight. All of the red, blue, yellow, green and white lights look like the Northern Lights. My mom helps me with all the tinsel on our Christmas tree. So it looks like an iron tree! The tinsel makes me feel that I am outside in the breeze with the moon and the bright stars shimmering in the light from the sun on the other side of the earth. My mom loves to do the ornaments with me.

Another tradition is shoveling. I like to shovel because when it's Christmas time there's going to be some snow. It takes a long time but after we're done our driveway looks like spring! There's a lot of snow in New Hampshire and in Durham we love to get rid of all our snow and it takes us about an hour! Shoveling is hard but in the winter it's a great workout when all of the sports are out of season. When we're done we go inside to get warm and sit and relax while my mom's making delicious hot chocolate with mini marshmallows. I love to shovel because it's good to get outside more in the winter and shoveling is a great way to help your parents and shoveling makes you get out more too. My mom is always pressuring me to go shovel so I can get out more.

I think that my story makes the spirit of the holidays come to life with the traditions and stuff that everybody does around the holidays. I hope that you got the feeling of family and things you do with your family. I hope you felt joy and excitement when you read this.

The Christmas Concert

By Brooke Wilson

Grade 4, Garrison Elementary School

Talia and her mom were making lots of Christmas preparations. They were decorating the house with gold tinsel, Christmas ornaments, and a green wreath with a velvet red bow was hung on the door. All Talia could smell was fresh minty pine. She loved the way the tree looked in the living room. She thought that the silver and gold ornaments looked dazzling in the red room. All this made her extra exited for opening presents and baking Christmas cookies, but she was most exited for the winter concert.

This year, she had a solo. She loved to perform up in front of audiences, especially doing solos. Her favorite place in the world was under the spotlight. Talia heard the phone ring. “I'll get it!” She raced over to the phone. “Hello?” she said. It was her friend Avery. “Hi Avery!” Talia said. I am really excited for rehearsal tomorrow! I think we should sell some tickets before we rehearse. OK. Avery said. Bye! The next day, Avery came over. Oh my gosh! Your house looks like a winter wonderland! Avery exclaimed. Thanks! Talia said. Do you want to go sell tickets? Sure! Avery said excitedly. We need to bundle up; it's freezing out there!

As Talia walked out the door, she felt the crisp breeze freeze her face and her feet sink through the fresh white snow. They started through the neighborhood to sell tickets to the neighbors. They rang Mrs. Dick's doorbell. A Mrs. Dick opened the door, the smell of freshly baked cookies filled the air. Hi! We are going to be in a winter concert, and we were wondering if you would like to buy any tickets. I will buy 4 tickets. Thank you! Talia and Avery said happily. They skipped around selling tickets until it was time for rehearsal.

As Talia entered the auditorium where they rehearsed, she beamed at the silver and gold decorations hung from the ceiling. She walked toward her friend Elizabeth. Elizabeth was usually happy and smiling, but today she looked miserable. What's the matter Elizabeth? Talia asked. The show is canceled. Elizabeth said gloomily. WHAT? Talia and Avery screamed in unison. They didn't sell enough tickets. Elizabeth said sadly. We could have a bake sale! Avery offered. How would that help? Talia whimpered. We could sell tickets and sweets! Then, we might have enough tickets for the show! Avery said excitedly Do you really think it will work? Talia asked. Positive. Avery said confidently.

The bake sale was the next day. They sold brownies, cookies, and cakes, but most of all, tickets. I hope this works. Talia said shakily. Look! Our first customer! Avery yelped. The woman bought a small powdered cake, and 3 tickets. By the end of the day, they had enough for the show to go on. On the day of the show, Avery and Talia waited backstage anxiously. She was nervous at first, but once she got on stage she forgot she was nervous at all. When her song was over, she took her bow and ran backstage to greet her parents. Her parents had bright red poinsettias waiting for her. You brought down the house! Talia's mom said. Do you really think I was that good? Talia asked. You were great. Talia's mom said.

Family Tradition

By Drew Hilyard

Grade 4, Mast Way School

I have a family tradition of making gingerbread houses with my family. We don't just do gingerbread houses for fun. To me it is more than that. It is about family togetherness.

I started making gingerbread houses 5 years ago with my mother, father and brother. The first gingerbread house I made looked old and rickety. The walls were burnt, crisp and blackened. Icing dripped of the roof and gumdrops fell of the roof. Also we had made a fence but it fell over a lot. When we got the fence to stay up the icing finally dried but when the fence stood it was leaning. Then we tried to put gumdrops on the roof of the gingerbread house. But the gumdrops fell of the roof. Dripping icing covered the small roof. We also had a path made of M&Ms then we covered the path in icing to make it look like snow. Then I put icing everywhere on the tray the gingerbread house was on to make it look like snow.

Once, my family went to a museum with a gingerbread city. The city was the size of about a quarter of a classroom. The city was built on a large mountain. Each house was very elaborate with shingles, walkways gummy bears and more. Some houses looked more like apartments. All of the gingerbread houses looked very real. They even had windows! The houses looked like each one took years to make. They had little candy cane fences and walkways made of chocolate. One building stood out. It was the largest and grandest house of all. I thought it was the town hall. That afternoon I was sad when we had to go get lunch. That night I was still thinking about the gingerbread city and how grand the houses were. I liked how they got their gumdrops to stick to the roof. Also I liked how they used the gumdrops for walkways in the yards of the grandest gingerbread city of all time with the chocolate streets.

Over the years my gingerbread houses get better and better. Still, some years the gingerbread houses are still burnt and crisp but more are soft and browned. But icing is still everywhere. Also every year less and less gumdrops and shingles fall of the roof. Now we use chocolate carved like windows instead of holes. One year I made a sleigh out of candy canes. Another year I made a lake ... out of Santa's cookies. Then last year I successfully made a fence out of candy canes. Now sometime I make path of chocolate.

My family doesn't just make gingerbread houses for fun. We use our gingerbread house as the center piece of the dinner on Christmas Eve. We always make the gingerbread house on Christmas Eve. I sometimes make a lake of cookies. Some years the gingerbread house is surrounded by candles.

To me the spirit of the holiday isn't about what you get. The spirit is in you and your community. It's not about presents it's about family. With gingerbread houses it not how they look but if you had fun.

My Best Christmas Memories In Delaware

By Isaac Olsen-Starke

Grade 4, Mast Way School

I'm writing about my best Christmas memories in Delaware because before moving to New Hampshire, I had been in Delaware since I was born. I put a lot of description into this piece of writing because Delaware is a really special place to my family.

Every year my family makes an awesome Christmas tree. We have a Christmas tree that can put together. Some years we get a real Christmas tree. Our cats like to climb the Christmas tree. One year the Christmas tree almost fell over! We have great ornaments. One of our ornaments has my name on it. We put candy canes on it to. We put a carpet under the Christmas tree. The carpet has Santa and his reindeer on it and we put our presents on the carpet under the Christmas tree. Oh and of course we put the star on top of it.

Another Christmas memory I have is when we made a box for the cats to play in. One of my presents came in a box that had holes along the top of it. Then we stuffed it with wrapping paper from other presents. There were designs on the wrapping paper. Some of them had stripes others had polka dots. Then we stuffed the cats in it. Then in the holes we put the toys. Some of the toys were mice other where balls that had bells! The box had wrapping paper flying everywhere! When we put the cats in and when we poked the toys in through the holes, the cats pulled on them with all of their might. It was hilarious.

Our dogs at the holidays are a big deal to my family. My dog Maggie is a lazy dog and likes to sleep on the couch. Her fur color is a brownish gray. My aunt's dog Lucy likes to play tug of war (and is really good at it). She is lazy too (and fat). Her fur color is black and white. The present that we get them each year is a toy assortment pack from Pet Smart. The toys it has in it are tennis balls, stuffed toys with squeakers and tug of war stuff and it's wrapped in plastic. It is shaped like a stocking. Our dogs like to cuddle on the couch. This year we have a new dog. His name is Chip and his fur is as soft as a pillow. I love the dog so much.

Every year me and my aunt have a snowball fight in the yard. I always make really lumpy and big snowballs (that you can't even throw) and my aunt makes really good ones that are actually round. I always get snow in my face and my face gets super cold! One thing that I do to dodge the snowballs is to hide behind a car. But this year I am going to get better at making and throwing snowballs!

This story shows how much fun I have in Delaware with my pets and with my family. One thing that I forgot to add -1 like hot chocolate too!